3:21 pm, August 4, 2020
Stoneacre Motor Group has acquired the Newcastle-based dealer Hodgson Motor Group.
Hodgson, which was established back in 1959, holds franchises for Toyota, Mazda and Suzuki across Newcastle and Gateshead.
The takeover, for an undisclosed sum, gives Stoneacre five new sites in the region, joining the group’s existing Aston Martin, FCA Group and Volvo premises in Newcastle.
The news comes after Hodgson briefly faced the prospect of being dissolved earlier this year, owing to a significant delay in publishing its 2018 accounts.
The accounts eventually showed that the group made a pre-tax profit that year of £1.07m on turnover of £76.8m – a 15.2 per cent drop in profit against a 17.6 per cent rise in turnover.
At the time, its accounts said that the directors felt the company’s performance that year was ‘satisfactory in what were challenging trading conditions’.
Stoneacre, meanwhile, announced in April that its top executives wouldn’t be drawing a salary out of respect for the company’s furloughed staff.
‘We are not alone in having concerns for profitability in this current year and beyond,’ a company release said at the time.
‘Fortunately, through good planning the company is financially capable of meeting the many challenges ahead, and believes that once we are able to return to some normality the surge of demand will assist future profitability.’
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